Avalara names new chief information officer

Avalara has announced that Tom Parker will be the company's new chief information officer.

Tom Parker has joined Avalara as its chief information officer, officials with the Bainbridge Island-based company have announced.

Parker has nearly 20 years of experience helping global organizations envision, deploy and manage information technology solutions, which he will build upon in his new role at Avalara, the company said.

Avalara is the market-leading provider of sales tax and compliance automation services in the cloud.

“Avalara is building a world-class management team with an eye toward accelerating our rapid growth,” said Scott McFarlane, Avalara CEO and founder.

“Tom’s recognized leadership and extensive experience in both the private and public sectors will go a long way as we continue to shape the company and set a new standard for compliance automation,” he said.

Prior to joining Avalara, Parker was the director of application security at the Microsoft Corporation and was accountable for the overall risk management of Microsoft IT’s application portfolio. Before that, he was responsible for shaping Microsoft’s enterprise application platform business architecture and supporting model and tools as director of business architect, application platform.

Parker has also served as a strategic security advisor for Microsoft and as a managing consultant for Shavilk Technologies.

Before his time at Microsoft, Parker served nearly 10 years in the Navy, most recently as a senior security engineer/division manager responsible for the management and operations of an 85-person Naval Division. He also provided consultative support to build and execute information security strategy for U.S. government entities worldwide.

Parker is co-author of the National Security Agency’s “Guide to Securing Windows XP Professional” and is the author of several whitepapers on risk management and Windows Configuration.

Founded in 2004, Avalara is the pioneer of a service-based platform for sales tax and compliance automation and has been recognized for years as one of America’s fastest growing technology firms.

On the international front, the company supports nearly 100 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Rim. It serves tens of thousands of registered users globally and calculates value added tax, sales and use taxes on one billion transactions annually.

The company employs more than 400 professionals at its headquarters on Bainbridge Island and offices in Seattle; Irvine, San Diego and Rocklin, Calif.; Falls Church, Va.; Raleigh, N.C.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Pune, India.